Marketplace, October 2026
It’s a little easy to dub this the first AI-powered election cycle. Some voters are ready and willing, others are not. In New York, 24-year-old Alyssa Ponce said she doesn’t need a chatbot to show her what to do. “Absolutely not. You shouldn’t need one because we see what’s happening every day,” she said. Others are either on the fence, or going for it. “I think maybe for like the more obscure elections where I don’t have go-to resources already,” said Tyler Koch, who votes in California. “I would actually because, I mean, that would be my first source, but I would check other sources,” said Emily McHenry in New Jersey. “If I see a controversial story on the candidate, sometimes I’ll, you know, I’ll paste it into an AI engine, and I will ask it whether or not you know it can verify the integrity of the story,” said Daniel Soria of San Diego.
